More from News & Announcements

Yesterday, a new security vulnerability, affecting Bash, was announced. The Bash shell, commonly accessed through Command Prompt or the Terminal application, is a part of many Linux, Unix, and Mac systems. Since it has been around for more than two decades, older devices are also vulnerable. If used maliciously, Bash allows an attacker to take over an operating system, access confidential information, make changes, etc..

A phishing attempt is circulating with the subject line: "Library Account Access". It contains a link that appears to go to the McGill WebVPN, but it goes to a completely different URL. A sample of the email is shown below.

Original announcement - Sept. 9, 2014:Some users are unable to access their spaces in the Centerstage Content Management System after signing in. IT Services is working to resolve the issue. Thank you for your patience.

If you didn't change your McGill Password after the Heartbleed vulnerability was announced earlier this year, we strongly encourage you to do so. Take advantage of the increased password length and create a more secure McGill Password without delay!

Instead of being restricted to EXACTLY 8 characters in length, you can now create a password that is 8 to 18 characters in length.

Starting on September 9, 2014 Internet Explorer will begin prompting users to install the most recent version of Java when they attempt to access sites that use the Java plugin. This type of prompt is already present in Chrome and Firefox.

The development of TrueCrypt ended in May after Microsoft terminated support of Windows XP. If you currently use TrueCrypt, you should migrate any data encrypted by TrueCrypt to encrypted disks or virtual disk images supported on your platform. Please note that IT Services can only support TrueCrypt and other encryption tools on a best-efforts basis.

A phishing attempt is circulating with the subject line: "IT" and containing the text "general test speed". It contains a link that appears to go to the IT Knowledge Base, but in fact goes to a completely different URL. A sample of the email is shown below.

Starting today, August 19, McGill students have free access to the latest version of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Office apps. You may download and install it on up to five compatible personal devices, including PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Android smartphones and tablets.

IT Services has introduced a new "uPrint Prepaid Guest Card" to be used by faculties or departments who wish to provide their casual staff or visitors with a prepaid card for the uPrint service. They are available in fixed amounts of $30 and $50 (tax included). These cards are not refundable nor refillable. Once the card is depleted, a new one must be purchased.